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Bullseye

Best of the Web: The AUKUS issue is not over

submarine
© CC0Alfa Class Submarine
Well, then I might as well address it. I am talking about this whole AUKUS affair and France losing huge contact on submarines for Royal Australian Navy. At this stage I am not interested in technical minutiae of this whole scandal, because it is useless anyway to concentrate on technical details of something which may change many times before, and if, it comes to fruition. I am, however, as always, interested in fundamental factors defining the framework. Le Drian and anyone in France' political top can express their frustration and play geopolitical games whatever they want, such as running to India:
On Friday, France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra after Australia scrapped a major submarine program with France in favor of acquiring nuclear-powered submarines with the help of the US and UK. Paris furiously protested the new arrangement between Australia, the US and UK, known as AUKUS. Le Drian called the ditching of French-Australian submarine program "a stab in the back."

Comment: See also:


Network

Best of the Web: Tehran's in a tough position with the Taliban

Iran taliban
The Taliban's lightning-fast takeover of Afghanistan last month put Iran in a very difficult position. On the one hand, the Islamic Republic has traditionally been opposed to the self-declared "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" (IEA), especially after some of its members killed Iranian diplomats in 1998 and the group's prior rule of the country saw it oppressing the Shiite minority. On the other hand, however, Iran has little choice but to acknowledge the group's de facto leadership of Afghanistan and thus pragmatically engage with it in the interests of peace, security, and development.

Tehran cannot realistically extend military support to anti-Taliban elements there like it did during their prior period of rule from 1996-2001 because the Taliban controls all of the country's international borders for the first time in its history. The modern-day iteration of this movement also claimed to have changed its ways by moderating its previously strict policies in light of changed domestic and international conditions even though observers have yet to see many tangible manifestations of this. Nevertheless, these promises add credibility to those countries like Iran that are pragmatically engaging with the Taliban in the hopes that it'll keep its word.

Comment: See also: And check out SOTT radio's:



Hiliter

Best of the Web: 9/11 and Afghanistan post-mortems: Lessons in safe logic

9-11 memorial
© AdobeStock
In the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 20th anniversary of the mass murders of September 11, 2001, the corporate mainstream and alternative media have been replete with articles analyzing the consequences of 9/11 that resulted in the US invasion of Afghanistan and its alleged withdrawal after two decades of war.

These critiques have ranged from mild to harsh, and have covered issues from the loss of civil liberties due to The Patriot Act and government spying through all the wars "on terror" in so many countries with their disastrous consequences and killing fields.

Many of these articles have emphasized how, as a result of the Bush administration's response to 9/11, the US has lost its footing and brought on the demise of the American empire and its standing in the world. Some writers celebrate this and others bemoan it. Most seem to consider this inevitable.

This flood of articles has been authored by writers from across the political spectrum from the left through the center to the right.

All were outraged in their own ways, as such dramatic events typically manage to elicit much spilled ink informed by the writers' various ideological positions in a media world where the categories of left and right have become meaningless.

Seismograph

Best of the Web: Amidst erupting lockdown protests, strongest earthquake on record strikes Melbourne, Australia

Emergency workers survey damage in Melbourne, Australia, where debris is scattered after part of a wall fell from a building
© James RossEmergency workers survey damage in Melbourne, Australia, where debris is scattered after part of a wall fell from a building
The state of Victoria, Australia, was shaken by its biggest onshore earthquake in recorded history on 22 September. Some buildings were damaged but no one was seriously hurt.

The magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck at 9:15am local time, according to Geoscience Australia. The epicentre was in the Alpine National Park about 120 kilometres east of Melbourne, at a shallow depth of around 10 kilometres.

People in Melbourne, who are currently in a covid-19 lockdown, reported feeling the ground shake for 15 to 20 seconds. Tremors were also felt in Canberra, just over 300 kilometres north-east of the epicentre.

A small number of buildings in Melbourne partially collapsed and power outages occurred in some parts of the city, but no major damage or serious injuries have been reported.


Comment: The timing of this unusually strong earthquake is notable because, after many months of increasingly oppressive lockdown restrictions, just a few days ago Australia saw an eruption of protests ignited by the enforcement of vaccine mandates: Melbourne police fire pepper balls at thousands of protesters amidst growing discontent over vaccine mandates & endless lockdowns

The pattern of significant phenomena such as earthquakes, record rainfalls, meteor fireball events, and so on, amidst peaks of societal upheaval is becoming ever more apparent.

To further illustrate the point: about 15 days ago there was a significant M7.1 earthquake in Mexico that just happened to be the anniversary of an even larger M8.2 that rocked the country on the same date in 2017. In the run-up to the day many Mexicans reported feeling anxiety that a similarly large and devastating quake might occur; thankfully for them, the quake was not as destructive. A similar sequence was noted with the M8.0 quake on September 19th 1985 which was echoed in an M7.1 on the same date in 2017:

Rocks the size of small houses break off during landslide near Mexico City, 1 dead, 10 missing


For more on Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection, check out SOTT radio's: As well as Pierre Lescaudron and Laura Knight-Jadczyk's book the subject: Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection


Eye 2

Best of the Web: If Australia's brutal response to lockdown protests was happening anywhere else, hypocritical Canberra would be demanding sanctions

melbourne protest lockdown forced vaccine police
© AFP / William WESTPolice tackle protesters in Melbourne during an anti-lockdown rally.
The world is watching in horror as Covid chaos unfolds on the streets Down Under, with heavy-handed elite police piling in on lockdown protestors using an arsenal of weapons that would be the envy of any authoritarian regime.

The online images are all too familiar: helmeted and masked police in body armour with batons held high, clubbing protestors lying on the ground as incapacitating pepper smoke burns their eyes and chokes their breath.

Meanwhile, mobs of rowdy protestors take over city streets, blocking traffic and disrupting the working week as they throw projectiles at 'whoop-whooping' police cars. Mayhem reigns.

Comment: Canberra has awakened a sleeping giant.








Eye 2

Best of the Web: Did Pfizer conduct an experiment on an entire country?

pfizer vaccine covid israel
Pfizer admits Israel is the great COVID-19 vaccine experiment

According to a recent Israeli news report, which I posted on Twitter1 September 13, 2021, Pfizer admits it's treating Israel as a unique "laboratory" to assess COVID jab effects. Whatever happens in Israel can reliably be expected to happen everywhere else as well, some months later.

In other words, the Israeli population is one giant test group — without a control group, unfortunately — and as noted by the news anchors, the people really should have been informed that they were part of one of the biggest medical experiments in human history.

Pfizer entered into an exclusivity agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Health at the outset, so the only COVID shot available is Pfizer's. As noted by the news anchor, we now realize that the Pfizer shot has a higher risk for heart inflammation among young men than some of the other COVID shots, but Israeli youth have no option but to get the most dangerous one.

Stormtrooper

Best of the Web: Melbourne freedom protest: What the TV didn't show you

Police Melbourne
© TDM
MELBOURNE DYSTOPIA

Melbourne has spent 228 days in lockdown since since March 2020.

The state is set to notch up a grim world record for the most days spent under stay-at-home laws when it passes Buenos Aires on September 23.

People have lost everything, and the past 12 months have seen unprecedented shifts.

Yet, despite spending more time in lockdown than most of the world, citizens of Melbourne are still unable to exercise their democratic right to protest.

Despite admitting there was no evidence that the last freedom protest spread any virus, Daniel Andrews turned the police against the public today and deprived them of basic services such as public transport, all in the name of 'public safety'.

2,000 police gathered in a large group, to prevent people gathering in large groups.

Melbourne's beating heart, the CBD and inner suburbs, became almost silent this morning — other than the sound of police and media helicopters. A Brave New World Order.

Melbourne is already in lockdown, so a 'double lockdown' zone applied across up to 360 square kilometres of the city. Tram, train and bus routes that transverse the CBD were shut down.

The agenda was to prevent protesters from gathering in the city.

However, this plan ultimately failed, with protesters determined to have their voices heard.

Demonstrators turned out in Melbourne to protest against lockdown measures, as they swarmed in front of traffic in Richmond, in the Victorian capital's inner-suburbs.

Comment: See also:


Megaphone

Best of the Web: Croatian President Milanović: We're Fed up with COVID frenzy, life should go back to normal

toilet paper shopping cart
President Zoran Milanović said on Friday that the media frenzy over COVID-19 was grating on people's nerves and that things should start going back to normal.

"We should know the aim of all this frenzy. If anybody tells me that the aim is to completely eradicate coronavirus, I will tell them that this is insane. It is impossible. What matters now is adjustment and resumption of normal life," Milanović told the press in his office.

The story with coronavirus will be over the moment we have more vaccinated people than those who are not vaccinated, he said.

Comment: Bravo. If only more leaders would take the same attitude, we wouldn't be in the state we're currently in.




Quenelle - Golden

Best of the Web: 'F**k the jab!': CHAOS in Australia as construction workers violently protest vaccine mandate outside union HQ

construction workers
A violent protest against mandatory Covid-19 vaccination erupted outside of a Melbourne trade union office on Monday, after it was announced that construction workers would have to be vaccinated to continue doing their jobs.

Protesters wearing high-vis construction clothing smashed windows, chanted "We are union!" and "F**k the jab," and threw projectiles at the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) headquarters. Union officials attempted to barricade the doors and used a fire extinguisher to spray demonstrators from inside.


Comment: Spraying them with a fire extinguisher surely didn't help calm matters.


Others tried to diffuse the situation, waving their hands in the air and shouting for those engaged in the violence to stop, but to no avail.

Melbourne riot police eventually turned up to the scene and approached protesters in formation carrying shields, batons, and guns.

Comment: Note that construction workers across much of the locked down planet were considered 'essential' and so worked throughout this government declared 'deadly pandemic'. Is it any wonder they're are furious that, suddenly, they now must suffer an injection, that they managed quite fine without for the last 18 months and if they don't they'll lose their jobs? It's also likely they're well aware of the endless reports of injection injury, and deaths, as well as the suffocating police state they're living under. It seems the pathocrats in Australia may be pushing people to their limit.










Cardboard Box

Best of the Web: The world is still short of everything. Get used to it!

Gjesdal
© Tim Gruber/NYTKirsten Gjesdal stopped ordering some products for her kitchen supply store.
Like most people in the developed world, Kirsten Gjesdal had long taken for granted her ability to order whatever she needs and then watch the goods arrive, without any thought about the factories, container ships and trucks involved in delivery.

Not anymore.

At her kitchen supply store in Brookings, S.D., Ms. Gjesdal has given up stocking place mats, having wearied of telling customers that she can only guess when more will come. She recently received a pot lid she had purchased eight months earlier. She has grown accustomed to paying surcharges to cover the soaring shipping costs of the goods she buys. She has already placed orders for Christmas items like wreaths and baking pans.

"It's nuts," she said. "It's definitely not getting back to normal."

The challenges confronting Ms. Gjesdal's shop, Carrot Seed Kitchen, are a testament to the breadth and persistence of the chaos roiling the global economy, as manufacturers and the shipping industry contend with an unrelenting pandemic.

Comment: This dire global supply-demand crisis is a direct result of mandated lockdown measures, not the virus. The focus was on calculated maneuvers to produce just such an outcome in order to cripple industry and reduce access to goods and services. Who does this serve? Not industry. Who benefits? Not the people.